International students to be kicked out the UK as soon as they graduate

Thousands of international students will be forced out of the country after they graduate in a tough new immigration crackdown.

When their courses end, foreign students from outside the EU will be kicked out the UK and will have to reapply for a new visa to work here.

The government claims thousands of students have got into the UK by signing up for classes or courses they never attend before working illegally and nabbing benefits.

Non-EU students will be stripped of their right to work or even apply for a visa extension once their degree is up, Foreign Secretary Theresa May has ordered.

All non-EU students will be affected by the change, including Christina Gumennaya (top left)

Up to 11,000 students per year depend on the visas to study here, and official figures show 121,000 non-EU students entered the UK last year – with only 51,000 going home after graduation.

But current international students are outraged at the plan to kick them out once they finish uni.

Studying Politics at UCL, first year Ukrainian student Anastasia Shev told The Tab: “I personally think that its just ridiculous, we spend crazy amounts of money on this education.

“By the end of my studies it will be around £50,000 for three years and then they kick us out.

“I just think its unfortunate as international students can add a lot of value to the economy.

“They often speak several languages, have an international outlook as most went to international schools. How can they not provide us with the chance to stay after how much we paid for our education?”

Christina Gumennaya, a second year UCL politics student from Kazakhstan told The Tab: “It sounds like madness, especially the restrictions on working part time.

“We already pay twice as much for everything and now we will not be able to support us anyhow.

“At UCL, more than a half of students on my degree are international, and if UK is happy to lose all the money we invest in their economy, they are free to do it.

“But I would now tell everyone in my country to go somewhere else where talented and young people are valued and respected. I’d rather government focused on real issues, international students rarely get working visas anyway and they only try to make it worse.”

Home Secretary Theresa May ordered the changes to international student policy

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said kicking out international students is “part of our plan to control immigration for the benefit of Britain”.

He added: “Immigration offenders want to sell illegal access to the UK jobs market and there are plenty of people willing to buy.

“Hard-working taxpayers who are helping to pay for publicly funded colleges expect them to be providing topclass education, not a back door to a British work visa.”

Last Friday Business Secretary Sajid Javid announced the govermment would stop the education system being abused by immigrants.

He said: “What we need to make sure – and we do have this – is that our immigration system allows those from abroad that want to come to Britain to study in our world-class universities, our fantastic colleges to come here.

“But we’ve also got to have a system that doesn’t allow any abuse when people are using the right to study as a way to achieve settlement in Britain.

“So we’ve got to break the link and make sure it’s focused on people who want to study and then, once they’ve had their studies and completed that, then they leave.”